I have always loved the Dunmer too. But why does everyone act like they are such the victim. Go back and play Morrowind and see how much distain and hate they have for others. Not to mention legalized slave trade in the province.

This, look at the US causalities compared with enemy ones the last 100 years.
Now add better strategy, they took Cyrodill then it was at it's weakest, this enables them to use imperial legions for lots of the fighting.

Yes they should be smarter: I would speak warmly of Dumers as fellow elves as they would be useful in Skyrim and its to few of them in Cyrodill to be an problem. I would also ignore most of the Talos worshiping for now as it's not an military matter and suppressing it makes people angry. Wait until you have much better control.

Money!
If your enemy has a lot of corrupt idiots amongst their ranks all it takes is spending a bit of money to win a war.

The Thalmor seem a lot less likely to accept a bribe than some of the imperials I've run accross.

Hahahahahah i laughed.

Easiest would be to obscure them with some very powerful magic. Not saying it would be an easy spell to cast but it sounds way easier than other ways to do it.
Yes if they was invisible they should work as before except giving moonlight however it would scare the Khajiit a lot, yes they would figure out it was an scam later but if they are happy enough under the new rule it will pass.

I guess the most powerful Thalmor are not in Skyrim. By the way, the Thalmor walking the roads with "heretic" captives are easy to beat if you summon a flame atronach. Conjuration school FTW.

I remember there was a quest all about the Altmer and their goblin slaves in Morrowind's Tribunal expansion.

Although when you read and here accounts of the Imperial-Aldmeri war in Skyrim there is no mention of any goblins in their armies. That guy in the undercity of Riften describes the Aldmeri army at the gates of the Imperial city and he describes only legions of elves in shining elven armor.
The superior armor and Altmer wizards would give the race a natural advantage though, just as smaller better disciplined and equipped armies have defeated larger ones in real world history.

Darn, you beat me to it.

I was going to say:

The Altmer have powerful wizards, it was a dangerous situation.

This is a interesting piece on the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Thalmor Short but interesting none the less i think.

Frankly, I think some Daedric Prince is behind the Dominion, just not sure which one. Jyggalag would be the obvious one except that the Thalmor rose during, not after, the Oblivion Crisis. Boethiah, maybe -- the whole competition thing, and the Altmeric sense of superiority.

How much experience and training time does a human warrior get? Versus how much experience and training time an elf warrior gets? An elf could spend perhaps 20-40 years training themselves in war and magic and still be in their physical prime. Each elven warrior-mage is a walking force of destruction that can individually cut swathes through ranks of human soldiers who've had a few weeks of basic, maybe a few months if they're 'special.'

The best way for humans to win is to force the elves into a war of attrition. The best way for the elves to win is to refuse to play by human rules. Honestly i'm glad to see an elven resurgance,even if I'm not a fan of the current incarnation of the Thalmor. The whole 'humans are special' thing has always irked me. Elves are the real Humans, 'Humans' in fantasy settings are actually Neanderthals or Austrolopithicus.

If we read about the akavirian gods...It's bassicaly Haermenus Mora.It's a thing like Ala/Christian god or Alduin/Akatosh.Same god diferrent/separeted being.Or just a diferrent name and the same god.We can see other worshipings in Tamiriel(did anyone thinked in Thalmriel?) with the same view.

every Thalmor soldier is a light-armored battlemage, the officers are pure mages. They are masters of magic, and they know it. And an army of golden warriors descending on you, spells flying and blades flashing, has a major psychological effect. Even if you cut down a soldier, the officer will fry your ass with a hand wave.

But, of course, they are arrogant pricks convinced of their own superority, and that will be their downfall. Currently, they are still listening to that little voice of reason, but soon (probably very soon) they will start to ignore it, and then they will fall. Fall like quadriplegic skydiver.

Froch:
I thought about H Mora, but frankly we don't know enough about him/her/it/them to know if, why, or how he would act. Which suggests that 'he' would not act on such a large, political scale. He's a god of secrets, and large scale action reveals your secrets. Besides, they have nothing to offer him. It would have to be someone who cares about what normal peoplel do.

Molag Bal, while fond of discord, is the king of non-consensual intercourse, hence not likely to be aligned with a people concerned with 'purity of blood'.

The Aldmeri dominion consists of 2 provinces, The Summerset Isles (or Alinor I think its now called) and Valenwood. So already they are quite strong, then places like Elsweyr have left the Empire and have cooperated with the Thalmor, the rulers of the Dominion, for bringing back the 2 moons of Nirn, known as the Void Nights.

Then the Empire lost other provinces like Morrowind and Black Marsh. Then after the Great War which was won by the Empire, Hammerfell left the Empire for agreeing that the Dominion can have southern parts of Hammerfell.

So the Dominion already has lots of power and control of most of the continent of Tamriel. Not only that they also are probably the most intelligent and advanced race with their snobbish behaviour. They as well live longer than the Human and beast races along with their great power to tame magic. Not to mention they are extremely tall and fast. And that's why they are so powerful.

Just to point out. All enemies are trivial to a high-level player character in the elder scrolls series; invariably most player characters will build up enough magic resistance gear to be rendered nigh immune to magic by the end and smithing/enchanting favours martial over magical damage.

This is more a balance issue and a case of gameplay/story segregation and shouldn't be used as "proof" that might rules over magic. In the lore it's made very clear that magic is a very VERY powerful tool, and most the races of man shun magic for the largest part, and even those who do practice it are often restricted in their schools

For example. necromancer's never seem to be fielded in human armies for religious reasons, even though the ability to turn the bodies of friend and foe alike into yet more viable soldiers is an incredible force multipler. The elves have no such qualms having ancestor worship at the core of their beliefs. The Nord's might speak of their ancestors watching over them, but the elves are happy to bring their ancestor's back from the dead to protect the living - as that dunmer says in Skyrim "The dead should serve the living, not the other way around"

well they needed some elves for the nords to hate, so they made the thalmor to really hammer it over your head that humans/ elves do not get along.

i think of it like britain. they started from that tiny little island and conquered half the world, so its not too unreasonable that the thalmor did the same.

Age brings wisdom.

Personal strength means little when you look at the bigger pictures. Orcs are unstoppable warmachines in battle, but they're divided and most prefer to just fight and die in battle than gtet anything done. The strength of the Nords has been proven time and time again, but they're divided. The Redguards are the only warrior race who seem to have got their [censored] together enough to oppose the Thalmor.

I don't think they really are as poweerful anymore. Between the slow reproduction of elves and the fact that the human nations are now preparing for war they are probably going to loose the next war and I believe they know it, resulting in them causing the Markart insident to start a rebellion against the Empire to drain it of resources and soldiers.

I prefer Cyrodil how it was portrayed in Oblivion. The whole 'lush jungle' thing should be completeley forgotten. It wouldnt make sense: Imperials are somewhat heavily influenced by Ancient Romans. Civilized, builders, structured, city-life. Jungles wouldnt make any sense what so ever, and that was the mistake. How would imperials come into power if they werent constructing roads, towns, etc?

In Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes Volume 3 it is said: "HIM. Those who know it can reshape the land. Witness the home of the Red King once jungelled". As I understand it one of the Septim Emperors, probably Tiber seeing as they supposedly are written in his age, somehow chnaged the land.

If the Thalmoor plan is based on the Bretons not caring about getting "erased from possibility" Then they are not the tacticians they are being cracked up to be.
The Bretons can do everything the Altmer can do but with the advantage of doing it more often.There are more Bretons than Altmer I believe.(If the there is not just play some Barry White ... the population will increase)

Add to that the possibility the Thu'um will be more widespread next game(Just conjecture on my part.It is to much fun to be a one and done mechanic)

In short dont believe the hype being spread by Thalmoor supporters.

Wow, can't believe how but hurt some people are over the fact that Altmer can't be shrugged off as a bunch of fops anymore.

Also, lol at people who think that a faction is weak because the player character can defeat it. I mean, duh, the player character wins by default because there would be no game if he didn't.

If you haven't already, read http://www.imperial-library.info/content/rising-threat. Volume IV in particular is of note on this issue. The Altmer do not have superior forces. What they have is superior intel-gathering and spies and an abundance of patience. They were successful in the great war because they knew exactly where to strike and how to damage the empire the most. Their loss at Red Ring was a devastating blow to them, hence why they resorted to subterfuge again afterwards to prevent a counterattack.(Inciting the Markarth Incident for one)

The empire died when martin did. It had over 100 years to rebuild itself and its armies and put an end to the growing thalmor influence but Mede did nothing. The Great War is the result of bad leadership on the empire's side.

And then plummeting to the ground as they get turned into arrow pincushions or as their Levitation is dispelled. That has happened before, when the Empire invaded Akavir. The Imperial Battlemages would levitate into the air to rain down Destruction magic, but the Tsaesci would dispel their Levitation, causing them to plummet to the ground.